H.R. 9837 — GET THE LEAD OUT Act of 2026

This section authorizes the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to award grants to states and units of local government with approved housing affordability strategies for evaluating and reducing lead-based pipe hazards in priority housing that is not federally assisted, owned, or public. It requires a 10 percent nonfederal match, limits administrative costs to 10 percent of the grant, sets aside $3 million annually for fiscal years 2026 through 2035 for technical assistance and state training programs, and permits uses including risk assessments, interim controls, abatement, worker monitoring, temporary relocation, and blood-lead testing for children under age 6.

This section requires risk assessments, inspections, interim controls, and abatement of lead-based pipe hazards in federally assisted housing, with initial assessments in at least 50 percent of units within 5 years and the remainder within 10 years. It adds lead-based pipe hazard evaluation and reduction as an eligible activity under the public housing Capital Fund, HOME Investment Partnerships, Community Development Block Grants, Section 8 project-based rents, and HOPE homeownership programs.

This section requires jurisdictions submitting comprehensive housing affordability strategies to estimate the number of housing units occupied by low-income or very low-income families that contain lead-based pipe hazards, outline actions to evaluate and reduce those hazards, and describe how hazard reduction will be integrated into housing policies and programs. It also requires those jurisdictions to consult with State or local health and child welfare agencies and examine existing data on lead-based pipe hazards and poisonings.

This section establishes a task force, in consultation with the Environmental Protection Agency, to recommend ways to expand resources and efforts to evaluate and reduce lead-based pipe hazards in private housing. The task force includes representatives from the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, and Veterans Affairs, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Environmental Protection Agency, building trades, landlords, tenants, lenders, insurers, real estate interests, housing developers, public housing agencies, lead-poisoning prevention advocates, and community organizations; it addresses underwriting standards, new loan products, appraisal guidelines, mortgage origination procedures, federal guidelines and pamphlets, liability standards and safe harbors for landlords and lenders, liability insurance availability, victim compensation systems, and requirements for risk assessments and notifications to prospective tenants.

This section directs the Secretary to consult on an ongoing basis with the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, the Centers for Disease Control Director, other Federal agencies concerned with lead poisoning prevention, and the task force established under section 104 when carrying out the Act.

This section directs the Secretary, in consultation with the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (acting through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director), to issue guidelines within 12 months for federally supported risk assessments, inspections, interim controls, and abatement of lead-based pipe hazards. The guidelines must base risk assessments on housing condition and the presence of children under age 6, and must not base them on residents' health.

This section requires sellers and lessors of housing to disclose known lead-based pipe hazards before any sale or lease contract becomes binding. It mandates provision of an EPA lead hazard pamphlet, a 10-day purchaser inspection period (unless otherwise agreed), and inclusion of a prescribed Lead Warning Statement in contracts for dwellings built before 1986. The section directs HUD and EPA to issue implementing regulations within 2 years of enactment, effective after 3 years, and imposes civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation, treble damages, and injunctive relief for noncompliance.

This section directs the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator to promulgate regulations within 18 months requiring training, accreditation of programs, and certification of contractors for lead-based pipe activities, including risk assessment, inspection, and abatement in housing and evaluation and abatement in pre-1986 public and commercial buildings. It imposes fees on accredited training programs and certified contractors to cover administrative costs, exempting state, local, and nonprofit programs; requires guidelines for renovation and remodeling within 18 months; mandates a study of lead exposure during such activities, to be completed within 30 months; and requires revised regulations applying certification to renovation and remodeling that create hazards, within 4 years.

This section establishes a process for states to obtain authorization to administer and enforce lead-based pipe activities programs that are at least as protective of human health and the environment as the federal program and provide adequate enforcement. It directs the Administrator to issue a model state program within 18 months after enactment, authorizes grants to states, permits states to impose more stringent requirements, limits states to one certification per contractor, and requires the Administrator to establish a federal program if a state lacks an authorized program within 2 years after regulations are promulgated.

This section directs the EPA Administrator to conduct a program promoting monitoring, detection, and abatement of lead-based pipe hazards and to establish minimum performance standards and a certification program for laboratories testing lead in paint, pipes, taps, and water within 2 years, unless effective voluntary accreditation programs exist. It requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, through CDC and NIEHS, to study sources of lead exposure in children with elevated blood lead levels and occupational lead exposures in water, including surveillance, control methods, health effects, and high-risk settings, with a report to Congress within 30 months. It also mandates joint public education and outreach on lead poisoning risks and prevention, targeted at health professionals, parents, homeowners, and renovation industries, and requires establishment of a National Clearinghouse on Childhood Lead Poisoning within 6 months.

This section directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, in consultation with the Secretaries of Housing and Urban Development and Health and Human Services, to publish within 2 years a lead hazard information pamphlet covering health risks from lead exposure, lead-based pipe hazards in federally assisted and other housing, risks to children under 6 years of age, pregnant women, and renovators, approved evaluation and reduction methods, certified contractors, recommended inspections, and applicable state and local laws. It also requires the Administrator to issue regulations within 2 years mandating that persons performing compensated renovations provide the pamphlet to owners and occupants before commencing work.

This section directs the Administrator to include recordkeeping and reporting requirements in regulations under this title as necessary to ensure effective implementation. It permits amendment of the regulations as needed.

This section requires every federal department, agency, and instrumentality in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches that controls property or engages in activities that may create lead-based pipe hazards to comply with all federal, state, interstate, and local substantive and procedural requirements, including certification, licensing, recordkeeping, reporting, injunctive relief, and civil penalties, in the same manner and to the same extent as nongovernmental entities. It expressly waives federal sovereign immunity for these requirements and prohibits personal liability for federal officers and employees acting within the scope of their official duties.

This section preserves the authority of other federal agencies to establish or enforce requirements at least as stringent as those set under this title.

This section establishes procedures for the promulgation or revision of any regulation under this title. It requires the Administrator to create a rulemaking docket (with a duplicate in the appropriate regional office for state-specific rules), make the docket available for public inspection and copying, promptly place all comments, hearing transcripts, and centrally relevant documents in the docket, include OMB review drafts and related materials, accompany the final rule with an explanation of major changes from the proposal and responses to significant comments, and base the rule only on docketed information, effective for any proposal made more than 90 days after enactment.

This section authorizes $9.5 billion per year for fiscal years 2026 through 2035 for grants to reduce lead-based paint hazards in housing under section 101 of this Act and section 1011 of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992.

This section authorizes appropriations of such sums as may be necessary for each of fiscal years 2026 through 2035 to carry out lead exposure reduction activities, including Title II of this Act, Title IV of the Toxic Substances Control Act, and other EPA lead hazard reduction activities under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

This section modifies the tax treatment of partnership interests transferred in connection with services by valuing such interests at the amount a partner would receive in a hypothetical liquidation following a sale of all partnership assets at fair market value. Recipients are treated as electing immediate inclusion in gross income unless they affirmatively elect otherwise. The rules apply to transfers after the date of enactment.

This section recharacterizes net capital gain allocated with respect to an investment services partnership interest as ordinary income and net capital loss as ordinary loss, limited to the amount of prior recharacterized gains. It treats gain on disposition of such an interest as ordinary income that is recognized immediately, applies the same treatment to certain distributions, and denies qualified dividend treatment and the section 1202 exclusion for related items.

This section reduces the basic exclusion amount under the estate and gift tax to $5 million, adjusted for inflation after 2010 (from $10 million, adjusted for inflation), for estates of decedents dying and gifts made after the date of enactment.